The Mammoth Site

Wind Cave was right Wednesday. The wind blowing in to the cave correctly predicted that Thursday would be a sunnier day.

I stayed above ground, traveling south to Hot Springs where I visited the only site in the country where mammoth bones are preserved where they were found. A private non-profit organization runs the site.

Here are the remains of at least 58 Columbian and wooly mammoths who fell into a sinkhole about 26,000 years ago. This is one of the largest concentrations of Columbian mammoths anywhere. Columbian mammoths were one of the largest of the mammoths and also one of the largest elephants to have ever lived.

Two Small Tusks

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One Huge Tusk

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The site is well protected in a huge building. Years of work remain before archeologists excavate the entire site, and work continued as I watched.

Work Continues at the Mammoth Site

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I hope they are having fun. But painstaking work like this is one of the reasons why I never became an archaeologist.